I wanted to get some boots I could use for light hiking this spring and summer. Years ago I had some milsurp jungle boots. I remembered them as being comfortable and cheap (I think they were $3 a pair at the surplus store back in the late 70s). So I thought I would look around for some jungle boots.
As you might guess, the era of surplus $3 boots is long past. In fact, there just are not any surplus boots at all these days. However, there are plenty of overruns, and extras military suppliers make for sale outside the normal military channels.
I wear a 13W and it can be really hard for me to find shoes. There just is not much choice in the stores around here in 13W, in any style.
I eventually settled on a pair of boots from an eBay seller. I must admit I was a little suspicious of the listing since the title said "New Military Black Jungle Boots", but the body of the description said:
New military style black jungle boots.
Made from leather and nylon.
Features panama soles.
The fact that it used the word "style" buried in the description but not in the title worried me a little. I emailed the seller (taylorsarmysurplus) a question "The description says military style. Just how close to issue boots are they?" and got a response back "they are mil-spec so they can't get much closer than that".
Despite my initial reservations, I bought a pair from this seller. The main reason being it was the only listing at the time for black jungle boots in 13W. They were $29.95 plus $9.85 USPS priority mail shipping, so I figure worst case I am out 10 bucks to return them. I waited 4 or 5 days, and when I did not get them in the mail, I emailed them asking about the order. Never did get a response to that email. But maybe 8 or 9 days after placing the order they were delivered by UPS. I was a little miffed that they would charge me for priority mail shipment and then send them by slow boat UPS, but that's a minor issue.
On opening them up, they looked pretty decent. The boots came with an instruction card labeled "Made in China", with the usual interesting Chinese to English translation. The instructions suggest wearing fluffy wool socks, and that turned out to be pretty good advice. It also said something about doubling the lace on the 3rd or 4th eyelets. Not sure what that is about.
The made in China part does not bother me a whole lot. The Chinese have gotten very good at making things with favorable price/quality ratios, and they make a lot of shoes for the US market.
They are lightweight, and pretty comfortable. I bought some Dr Scholl's inserts from WalMart ($16 or $17). I have been wearing them everyday since I got them including while walking the dog. So far, I like them. They are not for cool weather though (not surprising being jungle boots). I wore them to walk the dog one morning when it was about 30 degrees out. My feet were a bit cool. Not frostbite cold, but I would have been more comfortable with warmer shoes on.
I am not an expert on boots by any stretch of the imagination, so I am not in a position to declare them a great buy or not. But so far, I like them. And that is what matters to me.
If I think of it, I will try to post my experiences with them a few months down the road after having worn them a while. I am substantially overweight (but dropping steadily) so I put some stress on shoes. If I can't break them, they are probably pretty decent.
Here are some pictures.
Note a couple of small stones got stuck in the tread.
Screened drain holes.
[update] http://ilbob.blogspot.com/2010/05/chinese-jungle-boot-update.html
1 comment:
you have very nice boots!
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